


Palentine's Day

by wekeepeachotherhuman



Series: Fake Dating [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-03-13 09:19:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3376202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wekeepeachotherhuman/pseuds/wekeepeachotherhuman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky comes over with an unexpected gift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Palentine's Day

February 15th, Steve gets a text from Bucky that asks simply: _you home?_ He hadn’t heard from Bucky for a day or so. Now, Steve couldn’t speak for Bucky, but he’d avoided texting Bucky on Valentine’s Day just ‘cause… Well, ‘cause he’s awkward and afraid of the implication. He knows there shouldn’t be any sort of implication. He and Bucky aren’t together, not really. But he’d still avoided it. 

But today is the fifteenth. Totally different. So Steve answers. 

_Yeah. What’s up?_

Bucky takes a few minutes before he answers. _be there in 20_. No punctuation, no nothing. He’s probably riding his bike again. He does that: texting and biking. Steve hates it, but there’s something about knowing Bucky’s texting habits well enough to know what he must be doing that Steve likes. 

He stands up and shuffles into the bathroom. He flicks on the light and then looks at himself in the mirror. He doesn’t look like he’d stayed up past five last night marathoning _Firefly_ as much as he thought he would. He fixes his hair, combing his fingers through it absently. He takes off his glasses, put them back on, and then takes them off again. He shouldn’t feel nervous. He’s been telling himself that since he was a kid. It rarely ever worked. 

He goes back out into the sitting room. It’s a bit of a mess. He clears off the coffee table, inspects it a while longer, then puts a few sketchbooks back on it haphazardly. Then he checks the freezer. There’s half a bottle of whiskey in there. Bucky likes whiskey. Steve doesn’t even really know why Bucky is coming, but it’s always good to have alcohol around when you’re having company. At least, that what Steve’s mother had always taught him. Hosting 101 with Mrs. Rogers. Nobody would call that a bird course. 

Bucky buzzes up a little while later.

“Yeah?” Steve says into the intercom. 

“Yo,” Bucky answers immediately. “Let me up, Rogers.”

“Yep,” Steve says and buzzes him through. He leaves the front door of his apartment open and heads back into the kitchen. He turns his back to the door and smooths out his shirt one last time before he tries to look a little more nonchalant. Which hey, isn’t the easiest. He picks up a cup and thumbs at a stained line of tea along the inside. He can hear Bucky running up the stairs and he takes a deep breath when he can hear Bucky shuffling down the hallway from the stairs. 

“Hey,” Bucky says as he pushes through the open door. 

“Hey,” Steve answers. He lifts his head to smile at Buck and then he looks back down at the mug in his hand. And then… A double take. Bucky’s smiling and he’s got a box of chocolates under his arm and a bouquet of roses in his other hand. “Hey, wait a minute…” he continues. 

Bucky laughs and then hangs his head before he shrugs helplessly. “The stuff was on sale.” He steps towards Steve. “The store across from my work, they had this stuff on for like a quarter of the price.”

“Yeah, for assholes who forget about Valentine’s Day,” Steve says with a laugh. His chest feels tight and he knows his cheeks must be turning some shade of pink. 

“So I figured I might as well grab some of it,” Bucky says without even acknowledging Steve’s voice. 

“For me?” Steve asks as Bucky takes the final steps towards him and hands him the bouquet of roses. 

“Yeah, for you,” Bucky responds wit a wry grin. 

“But we’re not even dating,” Steve tries. 

“And it’s not even Valentine’s Day,” Bucky counters. “It’s the day after Valentine’s Day. _Palentine’s Day._ For pals.”

Steve sets his jaw to keep from laughing. “Palentine’s Day?”

“Yeah,” Bucky says. He breaks out into a laugh. “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of Palentine’s Day.”

“The day for pals,” Steve deadpans. “No, something tells me you’ve just made it up.”

“Yeah, so what if I have,” Bucky says with a shrug. He sits down at the kitchen table and opens up the box of chocolates. “Either way, I wasn’t about to let all this cheap chocolate go to waste.” Carefully, Bucky picks out a chocolate and throws it into his mouth. Steve sits down opposite him and stifles a laugh when Bucky grimaces. 

“What?” Steve asks. 

“Coconut,” Bucky answers. 

“I like coconut,” Steve mutters. 

“You want it?” Bucky asks playfully. 

Steve holds up his hand before Bucky can continue. “Don’t you dare stick out your tongue. It’s unbecoming.”

Bucky laughs and stands up to grab a paper towel. “Who are you even?” he mumbles. “Unbecoming,” he mocks. 

When he sits back down, he pushes the box towards Steve. Steve takes one. They’re good. He smiles at Bucky watching him. 

“I didn’t get you anything,” he says feebly. 

“For this holiday you say I’ve made up?” Bucky teases. “It’s okay. Besides,” he says, reaching out for another chocolate. “You think I got these just for you?”

Steve makes a noise when Bucky’s fingers hover over a specific chocolate.

“What?” Bucky asks. 

“Coconut in that one too,” Steve points out. 

Bucky chooses another and then smiles. “Where would I be without you?”

“I don’t even want to think about that. Where ever you’d be, I’m sure it’d be very…”

“Unbecoming?” Bucky interrupts. 

“Yeah,” Steve mutters with a laugh. “Unbecoming.”

Bucky leans back in his seat and runs his hands through his long hair. “You doing anything tonight?”

Steve shrugs. “I don’t know, am I?”

Bucky smiles. “You wanna go out?”

“What, like a date?”

“Gotta keep up the façade, right?” Bucky says. He crosses his arms over his chest. 

“The façade,” Steve mumbles with a smile. “Right…”


End file.
